We follow the crowd of concertgoers towards the stadium. It is our first music concert in an outdoor venue. How will that affect the acoustics? We had no idea, but we had come prepared with ear protection. No concert is worth damaging hearing.
As we found our way around the perimeter, we could hear the opening act performing in the distance. The volume level was reasonable, but when we rounded the corner towards our seats: BLAST! We stepped back as if we had been physically struck and hid behind a wall to put on our headphones. They stayed snuggly, securely, and comfortably in place for the entire event.
Concerts Require Ear Protection
We danced, sang along to the songs we knew, and “talked” to each other through a messaging app on our phones, all with our headphones firmly in place. I like to engage the noise canceling feature to cut down on the background din. It helps me to better hear the lyrics, although, in reality, my brain is probably filling in most of what I am experiencing, especially if it is a familiar song.
During the concert, the decibel reader on my Apple Watch consistently showed noise in the 90-95 decibel range. This is loud but at the lower end of the 94-100 decibel range for concerts posted on It’s A Noisy Planet‘s website. Maybe because it was an outdoor venue? According to It’s a Noisy Planet’s free and informative “How Loud is Too Loud?” bookmark, 15 minutes at 100 decibels is all it takes to damage hearing. There is no reason to risk it.
Not one other person we saw wore any type of hearing protection! It hurts my ears just thinking about it.
How to Protect Your Hearing at a Concert
If you go to a concert, hearing loss or not, please protect your hearing. Loud noise damages the delicate inner ear hair cells that help us hear. And once they are damaged, there is currently no way to repair them. Hearing loss from noise exposure is permanent.
But it can be prevented in three ways:
- Lower the volume
- Move away from the noise
- Wear hearing protection such as earplugs or earmuffs
At a concert, you don’t usually have option 1 or 2, but you can protect yourself with earplugs or earmuffs. I use Bose noise-canceling headphones because they fit snugly around my ears and do not create any feedback with my in-the-ear devices. But they may not work for everyone.
This article from Soundly provides alternative suggestions. Hearing Tracker‘s article on the subject is helpful as well. Or ask your audiologist for options that work for your particular situation and devices.
Readers, how do you protect your hearing at live concerts?
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The last time I went to a concert, I turned off my aids and left the moldings in there to act as ersatz ear plugs. It wasn’t as good as real ear protection but it was better than being overwhelmed by the music!
Everything helps! It’s so important to protect the hearing we have left. Thanks for your comment.
I’ve had hearing aids for the past three years and have been afraid to go to a concert because I don’t want to further damage my hearing. I have freakishly small ear canals, so none of the musician’s earplugs available (Eargasm, Phonak Serenity, and the like) work for me, even the small size is too big. A Google search landed me on your blog, and I’m intrigued with your use of the Boise over ear noise canceling headphones at concerts, because I already own those. Do you still hear the music even with noise canceling engaged to high?
I do. It’s not perfect but I can hear it. I think my brain fills in a lot of the blanks as well since I usually know the music. Hope it works for you if you decide to give it a try!